Where Fire turns to Water
by Violetta-Nero
Summary: Fist chapter of a series of short stories from "The Dark Artifices",which are developed around release snippets by Cassandra Clare. "(...)She could see his muscles tighten and relax, as if he was fighting of some bad dream. He looked so helpless and young, like someone who was bearing the weight of a much older person and almost breaking underneath the pressure.(...)"
1. Chapter 1

**Hello fellow writers and readers=),**

 **Please note, that I do not claim any rights to Cassandra Clare's story and characters.**

 **I got inspired by one of her snippets for "The Dark Artifices" Triology and built up my story around it. Also I am not a native speaker and therefore wanted to apologize in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes. This is my first ever writing and** **fan fiction, but I quite enjoyed writing it=)(2 hours of writing process)** **.**

 **So I hope you like it and if I get some reviews I might continue evolving the story, while I will always try to imagine how Cassandra would treat her characters and develop and incorporate more snippets from Cassandra Clare, which will always be highlighted, so there is no confusion! Also I cannot wait until the publishing date of TDA on 03/08/2016 and hope that some of my predictions might come true ;-).**

 **Lots of Love,**

 **Violetta**

 **Fanfiction TDA 1:**

" **Where Fire turns to Water"**

"Where Fire turns to Water... where Fire turns to Water... ."

With a small gasp Emma felt herself shrugging and awake, the well known lines repeating themselves on auto modus in her head. When she realized she wasn't drowning and wet from the icecold water, but instead wrapped in a blanket beneath the comforting bodyheath of another body radiating towards her, she felt her muscles relax. She could still feel the piercing cold of the dark water and the unbearable pain. Intuitively she pushed herself closer to were the wonderful warmth came from. Emma was lying curled up agains Julian's rip cage, one arm slightly touching the bare skinned side of his lower arm, while her hands were still tightly klinging to the blanket.

They were in his bed in the LA Institute and for outsiders it would have seamed odd, that two parabati were sharing a bed almost every night, considering the fact that for parabati it was forbidden by law to have a relationship in the ways of Eros. But Emma and Julian knew each other for almost 16 years. They grew up together, did everything together and could almost have telepatic conversations, because they knew each other so well and then, when they turned 14 they became parabati.

Both were orphans and with the unstable uncle Arthur beeing the only adult around they had to grow up very fast and take care of Julian's younger siblings Dru, Tavy, Livie and Ty. Sleeping besides each other and taking care of each other was their only way of dealing with all these responsibilities.

After she felt the last bits of the strange coldness ebbing away and her hands releasing their hold on to the blanket. She lifted her head slightly so that she could regard Julian's sleeping face.

His brown curls were a bit sticky with sweat and tingling in his face, almost reaching his eyelashes, his lips were slightly parted and he was muttering something in his sleep, his eyebrows were curled inwards, leaving deep lines on his forehead and temples.

She could see his muscles tighten and relax, as if he was fighting of some bad dream. He looked so helpless and young, like someone who was bearing the weight of a much older person and almost breaking underneath the pressure.

For a moment she took his features in with her gaze and some thought, that she had years earlier came back to her mind. She remembered being in the training room with him and Mark when they were twelve and how they were doing hand on hand combat and how she was looking at him and his features gave her a hint on what a handsome man he would be one day. This memory seemed from like another life, a life before the Dark War and the Cold Peace, a life full of hope, happiness and childish dreams.

Almost like a reflex she was putting her hand to his cheek, as if she could erase troubled sleep with her pure will. Consequently Julian moved slightly to her side and placed his hand over her still resting hand on his cheek. He was wearing grey pjama shorts and an old navi blue V-neck shirt that showed his slender frame with the parabati rune on his shoulder partly visible.

 **Emma swallowed. She was remembering Julian, two years ago, standing in the overlapping circles of fire where the parabatai ritual was performed. The look on his face as they each stepped into the central circle and the fire rose up around them, and he unbuttoned his shirt to let her touch the stele to his skin and carve the rune that would bind them together for their whole lives. She knew if she just reached out now, she could touch it, touch the rune cut into his shoulder, the rune she had put there.**

She wanted to protect Jules with all her heart and strength, he was her best friend, her parabati.

And while he was not the only one having reoccuring nightmares, she was the one who deliberately talked about hers, while he never wanted to share his. He always seemed so distant these days, even while he is sleeping.-Emma thought to herself and softly stroke his cheek with her thumb. Almost suddenly she could feel him relax a little and the lines between his eyebrows disappeared, causing her heart to jump for a millisecond. For one long moment she kept her hand still and looked at him released that he was asleep and didn't see the expression on her face.

Slowly she removed her hand from his cheek and turned to her previous position, curling herself in like a cat seaking for warmth against his body. For a few moments she had forgotten what had caused her sudden awake, but now the uneasy thoughts returned.

"Where Fire turns to Water." These were the words of Kieran the Prince from the Unseelie Court, a member of the Wild Hunt ... the same Wild Hunt that gave them Julian's older brother Mark back as a bargain chip... . Since this encounter with the Unseelie and Mark's return, she had the same nightmare over and over, almost every night.

That was the reason why she was training late hours and trying to exhaust herself into a dreamless dull state of sleep.

This night unfortunately her precautions did not work.

The dream started always with her falling from the sky during a cloudless night right in the middle of the dark ocean... . Just thinking about it now made her getting gouse bumps all over her body. Somehow she was wearing a silvery evening gown, something very old fashioned and uncomfortable and Cortana, the sword that her father gave her was hanging from her left hand. The fall was so fast and the gravity so strong, that her limbs and head were pulled towards the ocean which made her spine bend around her core. Her long blond strands wer wiping around her face and neck and made her skin fell num and sore. She could hear the rushing sound of her fall and her parabati rune was blazing up painfully and bright underneath her dress. The wind was hard against her cold skin and then when she thought she could not bear this fall into nothing any longer, she felt the blinding pain of her body breaking through the surface of the ocean. The icing cold of the dark water sucking her in and the loud crashing of water against her frame, the breaking of bones, the ripping of skin and the icing pain of water entering her lungs. While she knew she was dying and unable to fight it, unable to move against the natural force of the ocean her gaze was pinned towards the surface, now meters away from her. Her eyes wide open and searching for a key or anything to hold onto, all she could think of was of her parents of Jules.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey Guys=),**

 **this is chapter 2 of the "Where Fire turns to Water" storyline and as always I DO NOT own any of the characters or the Dark Artifices! I just enjoy evolving a stroyline around the various snippets that Cassandra Clare has given us and therefore try to predict some scenarios or possible plot opportunities. So, i hope you enjoy!xx**

 **Violetta**

 **Chapter 2 "Where Fire turns to Water"**

Rays of sunshine were falling through the half closed curtains in Julian's room and were tickling Emma's nose. Yawning and stretching her toned muscles she realized that Julian already had left the bed when her hand was reaching to his side of the bed and found it empty. She could not remember the last time she did wake up before him or even with him still lying in his bed. It was always her, who slept in late. One of the small painful changes, that she had registered the past months and that made her feel hollow in the deep of her throath.

He was very secretive about his early morning whereabouts, but she knew she couldn't blame him. If Julian got up before sunrise so that he had at least a little time of the day all to himself she did not want to bother him, even if she could feel that a part of her was somehow feeling hurt by the fact of beeing left out. This feeling was new to her as she was used to share everything with Julian, even her most embarassing moments.

Like when her new boyfriend Cameron had started to sing a song he had written for her in front of a bung of vampires when he got drunk at a little private party on the sunset strip. Or the one time when she had accidentally ripped the back of her top open in the middle of a demon hunt and was suddenly standing almost bare chested in the middle of a hoard of demons. Back then she had to take public transportation all the way back to the LA Institute with mundanes staring at her as if she was some kind of badass prostitute with all the runes covering her body and Cortana hanging from her hip belt. She remembered the look on his face when she showed up at the entrance of the Institute only wearing her beige lace bra. With Tavy in his arms and tousled hair the only thing he said after a long moment was that he would never let her go hunting demons without him anymore, no matter what, because that was his parabati duty. Thinking about it now made a sudden warmth run down her spine. His look back then was an expression she could not place. One more fact that added up to her list of little changes in their friendship.

Qickly sliding from the bed she put on her training gear and went towards the training room, but not before preparing breakfast for Dru,Ty,Livie and Tavy. There was still no sight of Julian. She first saw him that day while she was already in the training room with all the children except Ty, who refused to train, but instead locked himself up in his room and was probably reading in some ancient books.

She was showing Dru some strategic defence techniques, when he joined them. Looking over Dru's small head their gazes met and she could see that his cheekbones seamed sharper, his eyes had dark shadows and he appeared pale, but his blue-green Blackthorn-eyes were still the same deep intensity as always. Just in that moment she realised that one of his irises had some little gold sprinkles in one corner, that remined her of a hot summer full maze fields. Within a second she lost that thought and gave him a motherly look.

"Good morning Jules. Don't worry I won't eaven ask where you have been, but you should really stopp skipping breakfast and start eating more pancakes, you don't look healthy."

"Yeah, sorry Emma. I will try next time." He said with a reluctance in his voice, that showed that he would really try, but could't make any promises.

"Ok then. so could you show Tavy how to determine a target with the crossbow then?"

Emma asked.

And like that the five of them trained for one and a half hours before Emma and Julian guided the children towards one of the large bathrooms in the first floor.

There Dru and Tavy were having a bath together in the old white metal bath tub in the center of the room. They were playing with little wooden runes meant to teach the children the meaning of each rune, but were missappropriated as bathing toys. Tavy was currently smashing the Voyance rune towards Dru's head while Dru was trying to hide behind the huge mountain of bubble foam between them. Emma couldn't stop herself from laughing at these little shadowhunters, already throwing runes at each other. It were those moments with the Blackthorn children that she loved the most. They were like family to her. No, they were her family, the only family she's got left.

Julian was covered in bubbles and trying to wash Tavy's curls while the little boy always slipt through his fingers. He was giving Emma a look of desperation, but there was a huge grin on the corners of his mouth.

"You know Tavy it is going to take ages until we get you all ready if you don't cooperate."

"And that was exactly what I was going for." The little one said by showing an impish grin.

"Tavy, don't be so excausting! You know that you are really hard on Jules when you behave like this." Livie was shouting through her teeth while she was having her mouth full of toothpast.

Scenes like this were the everyday routine of the family and each morning Emma and Jules were always the last ones getting a shower, while the children already run off to play hide and seek or any kind of shadowhunter child games.

This morning was no different. Tavy nicely groomed and Dru glooming from the grapefruit body lotion were already running down the hall towards Ty's room with Livie running after them trying to talk them out of some stupid idea of asking Ty to adopt a bee hive from a mundane neighbor.

Emma rolled her eyes and gave a loving smile before she started to collect the fresh clothes she had brought with herself from her room and walk towards one of the shower cabinets on the right side and closed the wooden cabinet door behind her. While she started to take of her training clothes in the cabinet she saw that Julian had started collecting the kids' clothes that were spread all over the floor.

"You know what? Cameron asked me last night if I wanted to go with him and his parents on a trip to the Rome Institute this summer. I think I might have to dump him." Emma said while she was unclasping her sportsbra.

„Why that? I thought you liked him? I mean not that I was ever really fond of him." With these words he looked over to her and for a moment Emma thought she had seen him blush lightly.

"You know I hate it when guys get too attached. I mean, I probably should have ended it when he had started singing that stupid song... .He's cute and he's hot and he's good in hunting and other things..., but I don't know."

Emma was turning on the shower and the hot water quickly build up steam in the already damp bathroom.

When she exited the shower cabine with a huge towel wraped around her and a second one in a turban around her hair Julian was already standing in front of the sink and brushing his teeth. His hair in wet curls hanging in his face and a towel wrapped around his hips. He was bare chested. It has been a while since she had seen him topless and somehow the image of him laying in the bed last night came back to her mind. She could not take her eyes of his parabati rune right on his shoulder. Julian must have seen her stare in the mirror's reflexion because he turned around with a shy smile and tried not to look her in the eye. " Emm, you are staring at me."

"I am sorry. I was in thought. I will tell Cameron tomorrow at Tatti's that it's over." Tatti's was a popular Shadowhunter Bistro and bar in LA, where they met up frequently.

Julian didn't give her an answer, but instead turned around again and continued brushing his teeth, but not before passing her her own toothbrush and putting some toothpaste on it. They were standing there besides each other brushing their teeth and gazing at each other now and then.


End file.
